moving to the Asheville/Black Mountain area (Chapel Hill: chapel, incomes)

[cabinman]

I am brand new here. I just stumbled on this and am enjoying all the opinions and information. My wife and I met in North Carolina 26 years ago. After three years in Cali and 21 years in northern New York we are planning to move back . We have made a couple of extended trips to the area in the last year. We were originally drawn by the mountains, but were blown away by the thriving art scene.

We are both working artists with established reputations and decent gallery representation. It is unusual to find an art community that active and strong in a city of the size of Asheville. We are selling a small gallery and frame shop to focus more energy on our art careers. We love the Adirondacks but frankly the taxes here in New York are out of control and the winters get tougher as we get older.

Seems western NC has it all. Four seasons, (we didn't get that in Cali) and the mountains of NNY with lower taxes and a lot less snow fall, (over 200" each winter where we are now).

I'd love to hear from others who have made the move, especially any artists that might be out there.

[Bear Creek]

Here's my two cents worth. I think it would be great if more artists moved there. For a city it's size, Asheville has a great community of artists. But I think it would be difficult to make a living from just the local market. It has art festivals in Biltmore Village. I think in the area there are twenty to twenty five art and craft festivals. There is an area off towards the river where artists and craftsmen have set up in abandoned factories. There, they have open studio shows. There are a few good galleries. Some meant for the tourist trade, others for the more serious collectors. Asheville has quite a few small night clubs, lots of music. And it has a nice variety of people. Drawbacks are the price of land is still going up and local incomes are not.

[cabinman]

Thanks for the feedback budong.

I do not expect to try to live soley on the local economy.We will maintain our existing gallery representation in NY, VT and Chapel Hill, NC. We will naturally try to establish ourselves in the local market as well. In fact we already have some interest from one of the major downtown galleries in Asheville.

We also plan to do some of the major shows and festivals on the east coast and NC is right in the middle between Florida and the major cities of the north east.

We left the show circuit in 85 when we opened ourbb gallery. I think it will be fun get out and do shows again.

You are right about the price of land. Much higher than in our area, however the property taxes are a fraction of what we pay here.

[nancy thereader]

I am a new retiree and Asheville sounds like a perfect place to me. I don't think I have seen a more beautiful location. Have you seen the website for the city? It has a changing view of the city skyline with those beautiful autumn hued mountains in the distance.... almost Heaven.

[histo320]

It is a great community for artists but I think it is somewhat saturated with untalented artists but I have seen some extremely good ones too.